The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Encounters encouraging sulfides at Ruby target, Iron Creek Metal Tech News – Aug. 3, 2022
Electra CEO Trent Mell says Idaho may be the best place to discover new primary sources of cobalt outside the DRC.
The red and green lines show the the IP geophysical anomalies at the Iron Creek deposit and Ruby target. These similar-sized chargeability anomalies may represent two parts of a larger cobalt-copper mineralized system that were separated and offset by movement of the faults between them.
Toward its goal of building its inventory of the cobalt needed for the lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles, Electra Battery Materials Corp. has drilled a new zone of mineralization at its Iron Creek cobalt-copper project within the Idaho Cobalt Belt about 135 miles northeast of Boise.
"Idaho could play an important role in the onshoring of the EV battery supply chain by providing a domestic supply of cobalt in America," said Electra Battery Materials CEO Trent Mell, who believes the state may be the most prospective location in the world to identify new primary sources of cobalt outside the Democratic Republic of Congo.
So far, Electra has outlined 2.2 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.26% (12.3 million pounds) cobalt and 0.61% (29 million lb) copper; plus 2.7 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.22% (12.7 million lb) cobalt and 0.68% (40 million lb) copper at Iron Creek.
Now, the company is in the midst of a two-year program focused on doubling the size of this resource. After successfully encountering high-grade cobalt mineralization outside of the resource area in the main Iron Creek deposit, Electra began drilling Ruby, a prospect that lies about one mile to the southeast.
Electra geologists had previously traced strong cobalt mineralization for more than 300 meters at surface, making it an intriguing prospect for adding to the amount of cobalt identified at Iron Creek.
This includes surface sampling that returned grades as high as 0.24% cobalt over 10.7 meters and 0.26% cobalt over 7.6 meters.
Electra recently had an induced polarization geophysical survey, which measures the chargeability of the subsurface to determine the presence of sulfide minerals, to further define targets for the drilling now underway at Ruby.
Electra says the first two holes, which were drilled on the eastern side of the target, cut strong zones of pyrite mineralization spatially coincident with the upper edge of the target zone identified with geophysics.
While the cobalt content of the mineralization encountered in these holes will not be known until results come back from the assay lab, which is expected before the end of September, Electra is encouraged by the mineralization tapped so far.
"It is a testament to the Electra team that our maiden drill campaign at Ruby intersected mineralization exactly where the geophysical survey predicted it would be," said Mell. "These are early days for this target, but the similarities to our Iron Creek cobalt and copper deposit validate our view that the underexplored Idaho Cobalt Belt remains prospective for new discoveries."
To further test Ruby, additional drilling will test the strongest portion of the geophysical anomaly to the west of the first two holes.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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